Helping Eritrea to confront challenges such as food insecurity and infant mortality is the goal of the latest five-year plan between the UN and the government.

The Horn of Africa country ranks at number 179 out of 188 nations on the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index, which measures indicators such as life expectancy and education levels.

John Ging, Operations Director with the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, travelled to Eritrea in July and visited various UN-backed projects that are making a difference in citizen’s lives, such as a health clinic.

He told Dianne Penn how the UN has been supporting the country’s efforts to meet global development objectives.

Senior UN Official Draws Attention to Importance of Increasing Engagement with Eritrea

Speaking to media in New York following a three-day mission to Eritrea the Director of Operations for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), John Ging, today highlighted the important progress that has been made in Eritrea over the last several years.

Drawing attention to the often overlooked situation in Eritrea, one of the youngest nations in Africa, OCHA’s Director of Operations highlighted some of the country’s positive achievements since engaging more openly with the international community, noting the completion of a first four-year development-based Strategic Partnership Cooperation Framework (SPCF) for 2013-2016 which contributed to significant progress on a number of Millennium Development Goals, most notably in the health sector. (Continue read … >>>>)